Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for obtaining status information on a printer in a printing system.
Description of the Related Art
As an operating system (hereinafter referred to as an OS) that can be installed into a personal computer (PC), there is known macOS (registered trademark) developed by Apple Inc. In macOS, by using predetermined utility, it is possible to obtain a status of a printer in wired or wireless connection and display, on a screen, information such as an amount of remaining ink in an ink tank mounted on the printer.
At this time, the utility allows a vendor module provided by a printer vendor or an OS standard module provided by an OS to operate according to a communication protocol supported by a printer and a connection environment between a PC and a printer. The vendor module or OS standard module obtains status information on a printer at a predetermined timing and stores it in a shared area that can be referenced by the utility. The utility reads necessary information from the information stored in the shared area and displays it on a screen of a PC.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2014-32647 discloses a method for automatically constructing an optimum environment of a printing system by identifying a printing protocol and making settings for bidirectional communications between a PC and a printer depending on the printing protocol, even without a user's recognition of the printing protocol.
In a macOS environment, however, the vendor module (printer driver) can bidirectionally communicate with the connected printer only through an OS standard module such as a USB backend and an IPP backend. In addition, in the IPP backend, the status information on a printer and the like can be obtained only in a case where print data was transmitted to the printer.
For this reason, traditionally, in a case where a user trying to check an amount of remaining ink in a printer and the like accesses utility of a PC, the utility displays a screen based on the information obtained and stored in the last print operation. In other words, it was difficult for a user to check nearly real-time information about a status of a printer such as an amount of remaining ink.